Too Bad So Sad -- Mark Meadows Finds the Worm in His Cabbage

Big story in Politico this Monday morning about how Congressman Mark Meadows' apotheosis as Chief of Staff to Twitterman has turned out to be a longterm migraine and not the picnic Meadows apparently thought he was being gifted with. "Three-and-a-half months in, he has told people he is struggling with the chief’s job and that if Trump wins reelection, he’ll stay in the role only for an additional year, if that long."

If that long. Indeed.

Like any good fiscally conservative Republican, he says he likes all the perks of flying on Air Force One, the presidential mess, the little match books with the presidential seal that he can pocket for his friends. It's good being crammed into the armpit of the most powerful individual on earth, so far as the trimmings are concerned, but not so good presiding over the great dumpster fire of a failed and still failing presidency.

“Look at what has happened on Meadows’ watch: the walk to Lafayette Square, the complete mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis, the defense of the Confederate flag and the botched handling of the intelligence on the Russian bounties on U.S. soldiers. We could go on and on. It has been one of the worst stretches of the Trump presidency,” said Chris Whipple, who's written extensively on White House chiefs of staff. “He took the job, so he owns it. That was his first big mistake.”

When did you first discover you had traded a safe seat in Congress in perpetuity for a thankless post in charge of sitting outside Jared Kushner's door? "...Meadows quickly learned to yield to the existing power structure rather than trying to commandeer it. That means essentially recognizing the West Wing is Jared Kushner’s domain...."

D'oh! Second fiddle to the boy genius! Does the upholstery on Air Force One really make up for that humiliation?

Jared Kushner, The Cherry Atop our Coronavirus Sundae

Trump's son-in-law has failed upwards so often, as a real estate developer, as a newspaper publisher, as a maker of Middle East peace, so why not become "the point of contact for many agency officials who know that he can force action and issue decisions without going to the president"? He's perfect for the job of taking on the Coronavirus, since he has zero medical expertise nor any other experience to suggest he has a clue. He's the ultimate post turtle.

His track record so far?

He promoted a nationwide screening website and a widespread network of drive-through testing sites. Neither materialized. He claimed to have helped narrow the rift between his father-in-law and General Motors in a presidential blowup over ventilator production, one administration official said, but the White House is still struggling to procure enough ventilators and other medical equipment. (Peter Baker, Maggie Haberman, et al.)

On Thursday, Kushner got pushed to the podium at the daily White House briefing as some sort of new public face of Trump administration competency in the face of a global pandemic. Kushner promptly stepped on his weenie, suggesting that the Federal stockpile of medical protective equipment belongs to the Trumps and the Kushners, not to the rest of us. For the record, and according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the role of the Strategic National Stockpile "is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies” (Allyson Chiu).

Then Kushner took his father-in-law's tact in blaming the nation's governors for the crisis: The health crisis, he said, has revealed which leaders are “better managers than others.” “Some governors you speak to, or senators, and they don’t know what’s in their state,” he said, later adding, “Don’t ask us for things when you don’t know what you have in your own state. Just because you’re scared, you ask your medical professionals and they don’t know. You have to take inventory of what you have in your own state and then you have to be able to show that there’s a real need.”

Yeah, I feel so much better with Kushner in charge. And bring back the Your Pillow guy! He seemed nice.

"He Has Moved the Bar of Outrage"

Peter Baker, and the signs of the times:

GLEN JEAN, W.Va. — Remember that time President George W. Bush told his attorney general to investigate Al Gore for his “crimes”? Or President Barack Obama called for a Justice Department prosecution of John McCain?

No. Neither thing ever happened.

Trump has:

refused to release his tax returns 

refused to divest from his private businesses

put his son-in-law and daughter on the White House staff

without proof, accused his predecessor of illegally tapping his phones

fired the F.B.I. director who was leading an investigation into certain of his associates

 undercut his “beleaguered” attorney general in public, presumably so he'll resign so Trump can appoint a more compliant A.G., who'll behave like an employee 

On the same day Trump called for a criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton by his Justice Department, he also asserted that he had the “complete power to pardon” his friends, relatives, and very possibly himself if necessary, to short-circuit a special counsel’s investigation into any possible collusion between his team and Russia.

This can't go on. This must not continue.

Jared the Chocolate Soldier -- Keep Refrigerated!

Prince Jared testifies today before the Senate Intelligence Committee and tomorrow before the House Intelligence Committee, both testimonies closed to the public and the press, which suggests that Jared's actually a chocolate soldier and might melt under too much light. We hear he'll not be asked to testify under an oath of truthfulness, which suggests another whole raft of problems with this appendage of a president who makes shit up constantly.

The U.S. Code section 1621 covers lying to Congress under oath, with penalties of up to five years in jail. But another statute, section 1001 of Title 18, requires no oath-taking for a charge of perjury: "Whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the government of the United States, knowingly and willfully falsifies or conceals information, including before a congressional committee's inquiry, may also be fined or imprisoned up to five years."

So it shouldn't matter today if Jared doesn't raise his right hand and promise to tell the truth. Lies will bite him in the butt anyway, eventually.

So what's he going to testify to? According to an 11-page document he released this morning, he never "colluded" (and I trust that someone will ask him how he defines that word), and "I have not relied on Russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector.” That second claim begs the question: Did you try to rely on Russian funds, and what did trying entail?

Jared says he also wasn't trying to set up a secret back channel with Russia. The Russian ambassador certainly thought that was exactly what he was trying to do.

Russian Ambassador Kislyak subsequently requested that Jared meet with Sergey Gorkov, a Kremlin-linked banker with “a direct line to the Russian President." Jared claims he took the meeting out of courtesy and did not discuss American sanctions against the bank that Gorkov represents. That testimony also doesn't comport with reported facts.

Isn't It Amazing That Coincidences Always Seem To Happen at the Same Time

A year ago on June 6, 2016, after clinching the nomination of the Republican Party, Donald Trump boasted, “I am going to give a major speech ... Probably Monday of next week. And we’re going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons. I think you’re going to find it very informative and very, very interesting!” -- his voice modulated in that reality show hype style of his.

"Monday" never came. According to Abby Philip, Trump never gave that speech.

Here's a coincidence: Just hours earlier, Junior Trump had hit send on an email confirming a meeting with Natasha from Russia who supposedly had dirt on Hillary -- free dirt. International dirt.

Incidentally, Daddy Trump Senior now denies that he ever even as in never knew about the meeting until "a couple of days ago."

Another coincidence: When -- or because? -- the actual meeting between Junior, Jared, Manafort, and Natasha from Russia produced no new dirt on Hillary, the promised Trump speech evaporated. Makes me actually believe what Junior's been claiming --- that they didn't get any actionable intelligence out of Natasha.

I'm also believing the whole Russian espionage tradecraft of "the dangle," to see if a potential asset will bite at bait. The Trumps bit.

Upshot: The dangle worked. Later, through the agency of Michael Flynn or some other intermediary, or several, a deal got made between the Trump campaign and representatives of Putin to strategically release stolen emails guaranteed to hurt Mr. Trump's opponent. And that wasn't a coincidence.

Trump and the "Possibility of Being Fired"

White House leakers have been talking again, and what we learn (via Glenn Thrush, Maggie Haberman, and Julie Hirschfeld Davis) is that Trump really did want to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, but White House chief of staff Reince Preibus and White House counsel Donald McGahn talked him out of it.

Doug Mills, New York Times

Jared Kushner, who had taken the lead in getting FBI director James Comey fired, was noticeably quiet about the firing of Mueller, since his bright idea about firing Comey had backfired and ballooned into the appointment of Mueller.

Trump is in a rage about Mueller. The gold drapes in the Oval Office have turned turd-brown, and everything the president puts in his mouth tastes like used dental floss.

Trump's BFF Christopher Ruddy made the president's intention of firing Mueller public Monday night in a television interview. Ruddy is now saying that he did that in order to prevent Mr. Trump from "making a rash decision." For which Ruddy is now on the outs with Dear Leader:

“Ruddy is nothing more than a journalist who doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” said Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, echoing the president’s sentiments, according to West Wing aides.

Ruddy is CEO of Newsmax Media.

Yesterday, during a noon-time meeting at the White House with Republican members of Congress, Trump was asked by reporters if he supported Mueller, and he refused to answer. Then this:

The president was pleased by the ambiguity of his position on Mr. Mueller, and thinks the possibility of being fired will focus the veteran prosecutor on delivering what the president desires most: a blanket public exoneration.

Trump apparently thinks that he's successfully intimidating Mueller. He also apparently thinks that toadies who praise him to his face on cue are being sincere. Any man this stupid should not have access to the nuclear codes.

"Can-Do" Kushner's Back Channel

Kevin Siers cartoon, Charlotte Observer, May 30, 2017

I Take Back Every Nice Thing I've Ever Said About Jared Kushner

This piece of leaked White House gossip, or truth, or near-truth has emerged, "according to two people familiar with the situation." When word reached the Oval Office at 5:35 yesterday that deputy attorney general Rod J. Rosenstein had appointed a Special Counsel to investigate Trump and his campaign and other stuff, Trump's first reaction was to "fight back":

He quickly summoned his top advisers, most of whom recommended that he adopt a conciliatory stance. But his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who had pushed Mr. Trump to fire Mr. Comey, urged the president to counterattack, according to two senior administration officials.

After a brief discussion, however, the majority prevailed. Aides huddled over a computer just outside the Oval Office to draft the statement accepting Mr. Rosenstein’s decision and asserting the president’s innocence.

Later on -- last night or early this morning -- Trump began fighting back on Twitter, alleging a "witch hunt" to get him.

But, really? Kushner pushed for Comey's firing? One of the most colossal political blunders of the age, a firing which led directly to the appointment of a Special Counsel.

Why does anyone think this kid is smart?

The President's Daughter and the Male Manikin

Interesting article in today's NYTimes about the Jared-Ivanka lock on power at the White House. They have risen as the only antidote to Steve Bannon.

"Even allies acknowledge Mr. Trump is impulsive, indifferent to preparation and prone to embracing the last advice offered."

--Peter Baker, Glenn Thrush, and Maggie Haberman

Jared Kushner

Son-in-law Jared Kushner is now in charge of so much he looks like Swiss Army Man. He's "fixing" everything, apparently, from the Middle East to your cousin's hydrocodone addiction. He can't be fired. Neither can Ivanka, who apparently made the case against Bannon most effectively: "He's puffing himself up, Daddy, at your expense."

Footnote: Stephen Miller, the young white nationalist from Duke University who wrote much of that Day of Doom inauguration speech, has pulled away from Bannon and attached himself to Ivanka. That's a rat leaving a sinking ship if we've ever seen one.

Kushner Beating Bannon in the White House Power Struggle?

Back on January 10, ten days before the Inauguration, I wrote here that I had decided that the appointment of Jared Kushner to a White House job was something I considered hopeful, at a time when all hope seemed lost.

Kushner -- who may actually be an escaped upscale department store mannikin -- appears to be on the ascendancy in the Trump White House, with Steve Bannon in eclipse. Bannon lost his seat on the National Security Agency. Bannon opposes any intervention in the Middle East. Kushner's for intervening, which makes the Tomahawk strikes last night possibly some of his work.

Leaked details this morning of a verbal confrontation between Bannon and Kushner in the White House concludes: "Finally, Mr. Bannon identified why they could not compromise, according to someone with knowledge of the conversation. 'Here’s the reason there’s no middle ground,' Mr. Bannon growled. 'You’re a Democrat.' ”

Yes, Kushner is, though what kind of Democrat marries himself to this administration is left to your fantasy works. Bottomline for us: Whatever kind of Democrat Kushner is must be shades better than the kind of Dementor that Mr. Bannon is.

The awesome warfare in the air of mighty competing powers. According to Maggie Haberman and her colleagues:

On one side are Mr. Bannon’s guerrilla warriors, eager to close the nation’s borders, dismantle decades of regulations, empower police departments and take on the establishment of both parties in Washington. On the other are Mr. Kushner’s “Democrats,” an appellation used to describe even Republicans who want to soften Mr. Trump’s rough edges and broaden his narrow popular appeal after months of historically low poll numbers.

Between Kushner and Bannon is the man in the Oval Office, who doesn't know what he's doing, who relies on first one and then the other of these competing forces, which produces chaos and uncertainty and horrible public policy. Better hope that Kushner prevails.

ALERT! Squishy Liberals Very Near the Oval Office!

A draft executive order by which Trump would have reversed President Obama's workplace protections for the LBGT community has apparently been scuttled.

The draft EO had circulated within the White House for days and would have extended "religious liberty" to employers who wanted to fire workers because of sexual orientation.

Sources in the White House are crediting Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner with the turn-around. We'd like to believe that Kushner, particularly, has finally had some influence on President Rollerball.

An influential commentator on national politics suspects that it was Ivanka and Jared who leaked that information:

Nate SilverVerified account‏@NateSilver538

Call me cynical but seems very likely that "sources" portraying Jared & Ivanka in an heroic light are actually Jared & Ivanka.

• RETWEETS 4,737
• LIKES 14,934
• 
  
  

The Fox News Presidency

Does Donald Trump read anything longer than his own tweets? Did he read his own book? He is not a studious man nor a reflective man, and that famous book was the product of a ghost writer. He doesn't read books because he's already, like, very smart. He's told us. 

Trump speaks on impulse and decrees on impulse, based on what someone told him -- a golf buddy, the last person in the office, a TV talking head. Trump is said to consume TV compulsively, especially Fox News and most especially Morning Joe on MSNBC, and he obviously Googles his own name like an addict snorting a line.

Somewhat reassuringly, I think, for the future of the planet, at least some of his closest aides know what they're dealing with and are on nursery duty. Leaks coming out of the White House since Minute One paint a picture of Trump as "a clueless child" (Chris Cillizza). 

I like to think that son-in-law Jared Kushner is one of the leakers. He certainly knows Trump better than anybody, as the golden son-in-law with a fortune of his own. He also knows Trump through the eyes of his wife Ivanka, and she knows her dad. She's surely shared impressions with Kushner, who now sees everything at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Kushner has many press contacts; he was recently himself a newspaper owner. He's powerful, though obviously no match for Steve Bannon (see below). 

Kellyanne Conway must also be a prime leaker. Despite her TV act -- "Get-Your-Fortune-Here! One Dime, Get Positive Words. One Quarter, Get the World!" --  she clearly knows by now what she's dealing with. Trump doesn't always listen to her, with regrettable little media storms to follow. (Bannon, again, is stronger than she.) Trump doesn't read memos, and Conway's office is farther away in the WH than Bannon's, so she's resorted to "the best way to reach him, change his mind or otherwise bend his ear -- through a public airing of grievances." She's done it before, gone on TV and said things guaranteed to get his attention, even if it leads to a greater tantrum, so why wouldn't she be leaking an impression of him as a very bad little boy?

Time and again, the image of Trump pushed by his “aides” is one of a clueless child — someone who acts on impulse, disregarding the better advice of people who know better. We know he needs to be managed or else he will say and do stupid things, the message seems to be. "We're working on it." (Cillizza)

The Inner Trump Child

He is his very own North Korean anchorwoman. He can't stop talking about how wonderful he is, and watching to see how much we love his every antic. How's this for childish:

"On the morning after Donald Trump’s inauguration, acting National Park Service director Michael T. Reynolds received an extraordinary summons: The new president wanted to talk to him.

"In a Saturday phone call, Trump personally ordered Reynolds to produce additional photographs of the previous day’s crowds on the Mall, according to three individuals who have knowledge of the conversation. The president believed that the photos might prove that the media had lied in reporting that attendance had been no better than average." (Karen Tumulty and Juliet Eilperin)

His more devoted followers, who evidently can't tell reality TV from reality, think he's just "being real," "speaking his mind," "saying what he thinks," and the hoariest and emptiest excuse of all, "he's  draining the swamp" (as though a 10-year-old knew the first thing about plumbing). Representative Mark Sanford, Republican of South Carolina (the "Appalachian Trail governor"), said wisely, “I think you can move from 'real' to bizarre if you don’t watch out. And some of what he’s done in tweet-world and others certainly fit that mold.”

Steve Bannon Uber Alles

You can certainly see Bannon's fingerprints all over the CIA speech and the raging press conference that followed. If you couldn't see Bannon's fingerprints before, you could certainly see them after the extraordinary outburst yesterday in which Mr. Trump's chief strategist told the press that he views them as "the opposition party" (not the Democrats, who are feckless non-entities) and warned any media not Fox News that it had better just "keep its mouth shut."

Or else?

Before I forget: Fuck you, Mr. Bannon.

Trump at Noon Today: "Thank Whatever Gods That Be for Barack Obama!"

Donald Trump had 660 executive department appointments to make by noon today ... because at noon today, the 660 executive department managers who were Obama political appointees are out the door, no longer employed, paycheck ended. Some of the things they've been managing are highly sensitive and crucial for public safety -- disaster management, anyone? -- and Trump has made exactly 29 of those 660 appointments. America's wide ass is about to be hanging out there by noon today, and thank Gawd someone rational in the Trump organization realized they'd better be asking Obama appointees to stay on and continue to do their jobs, or crash the hell out on Day One. Last night, the Trump people begged 50 Obama appointees to stay on a while longer.

Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush got the inside scroop on why the Trump transition walks like a three-legged horse:

1. Turns Out ... Trump Is Superstitious

Trump didn't like the "bad Karma" of being too involved "in the minutiae of his transition." Whichever Trump insider Haberman and Thrush talked to told them that, "at one point, [Trump] wanted to halt the planning altogether, out of superstition."

Okay, didn't see that one coming.

2. Chris Christie Got Fired from the Transition

Haberman and Thrush document how meticulous Christie had been in laying out a rational and effective transition blueprint over six months ago. Son-in-law Jared Kushner got rid of Christie. No one was left capable of doing what Christie outlined.

Footnote on Donald Trump's inability to focus on but one shiny object at a time:

Still, there was thought put into the transition [after Christie's exit] and what would come next, including a draft of dozens of executive orders and recommendations for a communications plan to avoid “idle” time in the president-elect’s schedule that the news media would use to describe him as unfocused.

 The Donald, unfocused? Say it's not so, Omarosa!

3. Trump (A Notorious Gossip) Has a New Phone

"A secure, encrypted device approved by the Secret Service with a new number that few people possess."

Haberman and Thrush talked to several aids who said they were relieved about the new phone, because they were tired of being "blindsided when a reporter, outside adviser or officeseeker dialed the president-elect directly" -- because Trump had given out his cell number freely and likes to yak. (He's obviously still tweeting too.)

But get this: Trump's closest aids "expect the new president to satisfy his compulsion for continuous communication by calling outsiders and by tramping from office to office in search of gossip and sounding boards."

Who's got Trump's new number? Putin?

4. Priebus to Whitehouse Staff: Don't Even Look at the Boss!

According to Haberman and Thrush, Trump's Chief of Staff Reince Preibus "informed midlevel aides that they should avoid interacting with Mr. Trump without his permission, that they were prohibited from talking to the news media, and that they should carefully restrict their social media posts, according to two people with knowledge of the call.

Trump's Law: "Do as I say, not as I do."

Our Last Hope?

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.
--Princess Leia

 

I think I have to support the appointment of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner as "senior White House advisor." Kushner appears -- at least for the moment -- to be divesting himself of his business interests to be (more or less) conflict-of-interest-free, something his father-in-law will never achieve. So there's that.

Kushner is said to have "a calming effect" on Daddy Trump. We have to take that on faith, for if Trump has been periodically "calmed" during the last 18 months, we hate to think what displays we would have been treated to without Kushner's "calming effect."

Everyone gives Kushner props for ditching Trump's first campaign manager, Cory Lewandowski, and for showing Gov. Chris Christie the door, no small feat in itself (if it's true).

It's true that once upon a time Gov. Christie put Kushner's father in jail, but even without that personal reason for animus, Kushner's father was a prominent Democrat in New Jersey where Christie was a prominent Republican, and Jared Kushner himself is a life-long Democrat, said to be very liberal on social issues and liberal with the checkbook, giving to Democratic candidates.

The fact that Kushner, an orthodox Jew, has teamed up with white nationalist Stephen Bannon means that one or both of them is being influenced in directions he didn't necessarily intend to veer. Maybe it's those old Harvard ties that allow Kushner and Bannon to operate in the same orbit.

Only time with tell if Kushner can keep the Death Star from disintegrating the entire planet. He certainly knows where the plans are kept.

Moscow on the Potomac

Come on, Bubba, didn't we know it all along? American intelligence sources have "high confidence" that Russia was interfering in our election to cripple Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump get to the White House.

Worse, American officials -- including, very likely, Mitch McConnell -- knew it, knew it in spades, and chose to stay quiet about it. James Comey at the FBI decided that inconsequential emails on Anthony Weiner's computer were far more earth-shaking than the subversion of our government by the Russians.

Trump knew it. When he invited the Russians to hack his Democratic opponent's email at that press conference on July 27th, he was projecting what he already knew was going on, because he can't resist bragging and wagging his dick. Ever.



Tell me that ain't treason.

BTW, Trump hasn't had another press conference since.

It's also come to light that the tiger they've bedded down with -- Vladimir Putin -- -- also hacked the National Republican Party and has their shit in his back pocket. High stakes blackmail, should prominent Republicans with embarrassing emails in their past choose at any time in the future to oppose Mr. Putin and his newest butt-buddy, Donald J. Trump, in their world conquest. (FBI Director James Comey, who had a Trump sign in his front yard [see below], was very recently saying that the Russian attempt to hack the Republican Party had been unsuccessful.)

When the CIA's secret conclusion came out yesterday about overt Russian shenanigans undertaken for Trump, the "Trump transition team" (Jared Kushner?) could not resist another big lie while also attacking the intelligence agencies:

“These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” the statement said. “The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again.’ ”

One of the Biggest Electoral College victories "in history"??? No, not even close. That's total bullshit. Trump took 306 electoral votes, to Hillary's 232. How does his number compare?

Dwight Eisenhower, both elections, 442 electoral votes, 457 electoral votes

Lyndon Johnson (1964), 486 electoral votes

Nixon's reelection (1972), 520 electoral votes

Reagan's first and second elections (1980 and 1984), 489 electoral votes, 525 electoral votes

It is way more than merely a good thing that Mr. Obama has ordered intelligence agencies to assemble a detailed report of “lessons learned” about the Russian hacking before he leaves office on Jan. 20 -- a comprehensive history of the Russian effort to undermine democracy ... so that the truth isn't somehow lost shortly following "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office...."

This Week in the Trump Locker Room

Jared Kushner

Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, bought the New York Observer in 2006, when Kushner was 25. The veteran editor of The Observer, Peter Kaplan, quickly soured on Kushner: “This guy doesn’t know what he doesn’t know,” Mr. Kaplan complained to colleagues at the time.

Mitt Romney

Well before the Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney said in front of cameras that if Mr. Trump became the Republican nominee, “the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished,” and he suggested that Mr. Trump was dangerous and unstable. He deplored Mr. Trump’s personal qualities: “the bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third-grade theatrics.”

President Elect Donald Trump

The recently opened Trump International Hotel in Washington, which Donald Trump owns, invited representatives from local embassies to the hotel for a tour after the election to encourage them to use it when leaders from their countries visited Washington. Mr. Trump also met during the week of November 14 in his office at Trump Tower with three Indian business partners who are building a Trump-branded luxury apartment complex south of Mumbai. "There does not seem to be any sign of a meaningful separation of Trump government operations and his business operations,” said Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics.

General Michael Flynn

Gen. Flynn, according to Nicholas Kristof, is smart and knows the world very well, but he was fired from his last government job -- the Defense Intelligence Agency -- for incompetence. Colin Powell, former secretary of state, explained in hacked emails why Flynn was fired: “abusive with staff, didn’t listen, worked against policy, bad management.” He is regarded by many Republican and Democratic foreign policy specialists as "a kook." Colin Powell said that after his firing, he went  “right-wing nutty.” In November 2016, Flynn tweeted an obviously fake story claiming that the police had found emails linking Hillary Clinton to sex crimes with children.

General Michael Flynn

Flynn is also actually also a consultant for lobbyists. He went on an expenses-paid trip to Moscow as the guest of Vladimir Putin. He wrote an op-ed in The Hill "shilling for Turkey" without revealing that he has also taken consulting money from a company tied to Turkish president Erdogan.

President-Elect Donald Trump

The first foreign leader that Donald Trump placed a telephone call to was Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Turkey. “I have a little conflict of interest ’cause I have a major, major building in Istanbul,” Trump told Stephen Bannon in an interview during the campaign. (Bannon was still running Breitbart at the time and had not yet been named Chief Strategist for Trump.) When British Prime Minister Theresa May finally got through to Trump on the phone -- she called him. He didn't call her -- Trump said, “If you travel to the U.S., you should let me know.” The Trump-May conversation lasted 10 minutes.

General Michael Flynn

For his chief of staff, Gen. Flynn chose his son, Michael G. Flynn. Michael has been aggressive on right-wing social media. He's been called "looney" for calling President Obama a communist and a fascist. He shared stories alleging top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin had a connection to the Muslim Brotherhood, pushed a conspiracy theory that Sen. Marco Rubio was a closeted homosexual who abused cocaine, and repeatedly used expletives to attack Trump's political opponents. Flynn works for his father's consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, and he is reportedly always at his father's side.

Federal Judge John Primomo

At a U.S. citizenship ceremoney on November 17 in San Antonio, Judge Primomo, who was conducting the naturalization swearing in, lectured the new citizens: “I can assure you that whether you voted for him or you did not vote for him, if you are a citizen of the United States, he is your president. He will be your president and if you do not like that, you need to go to another country.”

16 Ways of Looking at a Mugwump

Mugwump, noun: 1. a Republican who refused to support the party nominee, James G. Blaine, in the presidential campaign of 1884. 2. a person who is unable to make up his or her mind on an issue, especially in politics; a person who is neutral on a controversial issue.
 

Kushner

1. Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, has conducted a "purge" of certain members of Trump's transition team, starting with Gov. Chris Christie who was fired as head of the transition last Friday. Former Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan and Matthew Freedman, a lobbyist who consults with corporations and foreign governments, were also fired. Both had ties to Christie.

2. The President-elect sent a tweet very late last night insisting that everything was going smoothly. “Very organized process taking place as I decide on Cabinet and many other positions. I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!”

3. Rebekah Mercer, a major donor to Trump’s presidential campaign and member of his executive transition team, told Republican operatives that she was having difficulty finding people interested in rank-and-file administration posts.

4. Trump took his first conversations with foreign leaders without reviewing official State Department briefing materials, and he broke from diplomatic practice by delaying conversations with close U.S. allies. Trump’s first call was with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, followed by Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu. British Prime Minister Theresa May didn’t get through to Trump until almost a day later.

5. As of yesterday, officials at both the Pentagon and State Department said they have heard nothing from Trump’s transition team.

Bannon

6. Trump’s newly-named chief strategist, Steve Bannon, helped turn Breitbart News into a platform for the white nationalist alt-right. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a possible choice for attorney general, was once turned down for a federal judgeship after several U.S. attorneys testified that he made racist comments in court. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani’s extensive business ties to Qatar and Venezuela complicate reports that he could be chosen as secretary of state.

7. Eliot A. Cohen, a former State Department official who had criticized Trump during the campaign but said after his election that he would keep an open mind about advising him, said yesterday on Twitter that he had changed his opinion. After speaking to the transition team, he wrote, "stay away!” adding, “They’re angry, arrogant, screaming ‘you LOST!’ Will be ugly.”

8. Donald Trump and some of his family went to dinner last night at the super-expensive 21 Club in Manhattan (where you can get a ribeye for $68) and said to the well-heeled diners, "We'll get your taxes down -- don't worry about it."

9. Vice President-elect Mike Pence -- who now heads the transition after the firing of Christie -- did his own purge, reportedly dismissing the several registered lobbyists who had moved in, leaving the transition "short-staffed" but closer to Trump’s campaign promise to “drain the swamp.”

Mnuchin

10. Former Goldman Sachs partner and Trump loyalist Steven Mnuchin is the frontrunner for treasury secretary. Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions is now favored to serve as attorney general. Seen arriving at Trump Tower yesterday was one-time campaign rival Ted Cruz. Joining the national security transition team is Frank Gaffney Jr. -- labeled by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes,” and who last year defended Trump’s proposed Muslim ban as “common sense.”

11. Rudy Giuliani let his freak flag fly and admitted in public that he's pretty sure he'll be picked as Secretary of State. John Bolton’s name also surfaced for that job. Republican Sen. Rand Paul immediately objected, calling Bolton “unfit” for the job. “You want to have a diplomat in charge of diplomacy. You don’t want a bomb thrower,” Paul told CNN. Then Paul lumped the former mayor of New York City in with Bolton: “I think Giuliani and Bolton are very similar. Bolton just has a more extensive cheerleading background with regard to war in the Middle East.”

12. Republicans will have a one-seat majority in the Senate, meaning any defection -- by a senator like Rand Paul -- could pose a serious roadblock to confirming Trump’s top Cabinet picks. 

13. One source with knowledge of the Trump transition described it as a "knife fight."

14. A particular challenge for the Trump transition is lack of clarity about the division of power among Reince Priebus, named Chief of Staff of the Trump White House; Steve Bannon, the Harvard-educated white supremacist and campaign Svengali; and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has Trump's ear like no one else. Another source tied to the transition described the resulting confusion as "buffoonery."

Flynn

15. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has emerged as a leading candidate for national security adviser. Flynn was a vocal and sometimes inflamatory advocate for Trump during the campaign. At the Republican National Convention he delivered a fiery speech attacking Clinton (as being in the enemy camp, along with Barack Hussein Obama) and waving the bloody flag of "American exceptionalism." He echoed Trump's rhetoric of crushing terrorism, cozying up to Russia, and dissing NATO.

16. Trump on the campaign trail promised repeatedly not to change Medicare. Now his official website says: “modernize Medicare, so that it will be ready for the challenges with the coming retirement of the Baby Boom generation – and beyond.” "Modernize"? House Speaker Paul Ryan has a different term: "Medicare is going to have price controls.”

A nation and its Constitution are one. A nation and its Constitution and Donald Trump are one. (Apologies, Wallace Stevens!)